LAISI: Bekam

Most people would cringe at the sight of 2 large leeches happily sucking blood from any part of your body. I would too. But not this you lady who was happy to let these two slimy creatures feed on her blood at the spot where she seems to have a skin disease of sort. I guess she must have exhausted all means of modern medicine to cure it and and now she is resorting to this traditional mean with the hope of curing her ailment.

I chanced upon her at the night market in Down Town Shah Alam. After asking for permission I took a couple of shots of her undergoing the 'bekam' which is a form of blood letting using a leech. The leech is the big ones and not the 'pacat' kind which is more bearable to me at least.

There she is smiling at the sight of the two leeches doing their job. The spouse was definitely supportive of her.

This is the guy who provided the 'Bekam Lintah' services at Pasar Malam Shah Alam. I took one of his phamplets where all the goodness of blood letting using the leeches were espoused and also his contact number. Somehow I have misplaced it so I can't share with you the details. Anyway should you need his services just go to the Pasar Malam Uptown and look out for him there.

When I was small my late grandmother used to ask me to look for leeches to be used on my granduncle whenever he had a bad headache. I was scared of the leeches but had to brave myself and catch the big leeches without touching it. Almost 50 years ago, leeches were easily found wherever there is standing water. Even in the driest of season, there is a water body somewhere in the village where there were leeches to be found. Of course nowadays leeches are reared for many purposes.

I did mention about seeing 'berbekam' being performed on the streets of Labuan using glass cups purpose built for 'berbekam'. These glass cups were fitted with a valve each and a simple pump is used to remove the air inside it creating a vacuum. This is better as clear glass cups are easier to be cleaned when used for blood letting. Small pin hole punctures are made in the skin where the patients blood oozes out. The punctures are so small that it wont leave any visible scars as often is the case when using blades.

This guy showed me how it was done using the vacuum pump.

Blood oozing out from the pin pricks.

Yesterday while walking around Pasir Mas I saw this guy performing a similar thing near the 'Sudut Penjual Ubat' in Pasir Mas. He was using bamboo cups and spirit was used to burn the oxygen in the bamboo cups before placing then on the places where the patient felt the pain.

This guy complained of a shoulder ache and so the cups were applied there. Since the skin or blood vessels were not punctured, there was no blood letting involved. It was just for 'buang angin'.